Unique American Folk and Outsider Art

So much has happened! We had a fantastic time in New York at the Outsider Art Fair in January this year. It was a wonderfully eclectic show, but Just Folk’s booth focused on Bill Traylor. We were fortunate to sell four of his works, three to new buyers. The awareness of Bill Traylor’s art has been enhanced by the incredible show at the Smithsonian American Museum in Washington. Curated by the inspired Leslie Umberger, the show was incredibly mounted and showcased 150 works that Traylor created between the ages of 83-85 years old! It is terrific that his work is finally getting recognition. There was a wonderful piece on CBS Sunday Morning that aired April 7th and featured the Smithsonian show through an interview with Leslie. I’m sure it’s available online and I can’t recommend it more highly. Jeffrey Wolf has also made a magnificent film on Traylor that was shown at the opening in Washington. He is entering it in festivals, so keep an eye out for Chasing Ghosts. Please be sure to check out our Traylor section on this site under Outsider and Self Taught. We have sold so many postcard books and posters through Amazon due to this heightened awareness of Bill Traylor’s work.

On another subject, I am finally learning how to blog and send out our newsletter, as well post on social media. It’s time I entered the world of modern communication, so look for more of our works online. Now that we have closed the gallery in Summerland, many people think we are no longer active. It isn’t so! We have our entire inventory in Los Angeles, available to view if buyers are interested. Everything we have is on the website, and I have received numerous inquiries about many pieces, and sold quite a bit. But I am amping up the visibility so that collectors are aware of the wonderful pieces we have.

We have also collaborated with other galleries to get the news out about our artists. We had a show at The Good Luck Gallery which featured Elijah Pierce and LeRoy Almon and had a good lecture on African American Art organized by Paige Wery to heighten awareness. We have recently sent five pieces, two by Bill Traylor, two by Thornton Dial, and one by James Castle, to Seoul, Korea for an exhibition. The international interest in Self-Taught artists is growing, and the Asian market is a fascinating place to expand our visibility.

Keep an eye on this blog because I will be updating it more often. Feel free to write on it, or contact me at [email protected] with any inquiries and comments. Happy Spring!

945 Chung King Road

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Wed-Sunday 12pm-6pm

Join us for Making Do With What’s On Hand, a talk by well-known art curator and writer Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins, PhD. –

“I blur the lines between academically and self-trained artists. I look at why and how they use materials.”

Dr. LeFalle-Collins will discuss the trajectory of creating objects for display and function within communities of self-taught African Americans, from the slavery era to the present. “Called many things from folk art, self-taught, visionary, to outsider art,” says LeFalle-Collins “whatever the category ascribed to these works, they have in common a shared cultural identity, traditional art practice, and a lineage that undergirds artworks by many contemporary black artists.” The Good Luck Gallery’s exhibition of historical woodcarvings by Elijah Pierce and Leroy Almon (on view June 9 – July 15) will be contextualized in the broader framework of African and African American art. Questions and conversations welcome!

Dr. LeFalle-Collins has taught at Tuskegee University, Mills College, Oakland, and the San Francisco Art Institute. She was the first Visual Arts Curator at the California African American Museum Los Angeles and has created exhibitions for San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the American Federation for the Arts, New York, and the Museum of the African Diaspora, among many others.

A farmer guides a plow behind his stoic mule, three men cheat at cards, a snake with rhinestone eyes slithers through the grass, and enslaved men and women hunch over their labor in the fields under the watchful eye of a blond overseer. The Good Luck Gallery is honored to partner with Just Folk and Cavin-Morris Gallery for an historic exhibition of master African-American woodcarvers Elijah Pierce (1892-1984) and Leroy Almon (1938-1997) opening June 9, 2018.

Two significant twentieth century folk artists, Elijah Pierce and Leroy Almon each grew up in the Southern United States but would make their homes and their marks in Columbus, Ohio.

Each would use his craft to further his religious and social mission, with Pierce serving as mentor to the younger Almon.

Elijah Pierce, the son of a former slave, was born in Baldwyn, Mississippi into a deeply religious family. At the age of sixteen he opened a barbershop, and after many years straining against his religious upbringing, finally embraced his traditionalist Christian vocation. He became a minister while continuing to carve and barber, with each practice serving and supporting the other two.

While animals and domestic scenes remembered from his childhood continued to appear in Pierce’s work, he also expertly conveyed stories, sermons, and his own deeply personal spiritual history in the form of carved wood panels. It was into this tradition that Leroy Almon was indoctrinated. Born in Tallapoosa, Georgia, Almon met Elijah Pierce and began his work as a wood carver in adulthood. At various times a shoe salesman, Coca-Cola employee, and police dispatcher, Almon too, would eventually find his vocation as a minister. Many of his relief wood carved panels reflect his religious proclivity, exploring themes ranging from famous historical subjects, slavery, and racism, to gambling and promiscuity.Both artists gained recognition within their lifetimes, though Pierce was in his seventies by the time museums and collectors began to take note. In 1972 Pierce was shown in the Members’ Penthouse of The Museum of Modern Art and in 1982 he received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, following his inclusion in Black Folk Art in America, 1930–1980 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Leroy Almon, The Old Gambler, 1993, painted bas-relief wood carving – signed, 36×15” Serving as an invaluable record of twentieth-century America, Almon and Pierce’s carvings are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the California African American Museum, among others, and were featured in The High Museum’s exhibition A Cut Above: Wood Sculpture from the Gordon W. Bailey Collection 2016. Carvings of tigers, hippos, and snakes unite with bas-relief carved story panels in this timely exhibition that explores identity, community, popular culture, and religion in powerful, personal style.

“God speaks to me. I know his voice. ‘Elijah, your life is a book, and every day you write a page, and when you are done you won’t be able to deny it because you wrote it yourself.’” -Elijah Pierce, Elijah Pierce Woodcarver, Columbus Museum of Art, 1992

945 Chung King Road

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Wednesday – Sunday Noon – 6PM and by appointment

We just sold two major pieces from our collection! We still got it! Summer went by so quickly and we have had so many changes to adapt to! But we have been busy! We have decided to participate once again in The Outsider Art Fair 2018 in New York January 18-21 in New York. Putting together ideas of which artists to bring…. Check out our Outsider Art section on our website, email us your favorites and the first 10 ideas we will bring! Manhattan in January is always a thrill!

We attended the opening of the Martin Ramirez show at the new Institute of Contempory Art-Los Angeles (ICA-LA)https://www.theicala.org/en/exhibitions/1-martin-ramirez-his-life-in-pictures-another-interpretation and it is fantastic! What a beautiful space and the exhibition is breathtaking. Longhauser did an amazing job curating the new space. Very excited that the “insider” art world is learning about this amazing artist. Check out our three Ramirez works on our website as well as the Robert Bergman/Ricco Maresca collaboration at Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, another magnificent Ramirez show there in conjunction with Pacific Standard Time LA/LA!http://www.robertbermangallery.com/

There’s also an amazing movie coming out called, “Eternity Has No Door of Escape- Encounters with Outsiders Art”https://vimeo.com/189041990 a film by Arthur Borgnis about the history of art brut, featuring interviews with key figures in the field and rare footage of Hans Prinzhorn, Jean Dubuffet, Aloïse Corbaz and Harald Szeemann. To order email:[email protected]

Our phone is still up and running so give a call or email and say hello! We miss you! Marcy and Susan

Welcome (or welcome back) to our blog, which we will now update regularly with news of Just Folk and the world of Self-Taught and Iconic American Folk Art.

We have transitioned to an online-only gallery and remain dedicated to buying and selling the best of the best. As you see, our website has a new look and now includes our entire inventory. New technology allows the viewer to pan over each piece in detail and we offer different angles and close-ups along with explanatory text, measurements and prices. As before, our inventory is divided into two parts, Iconic Americana and Self-Taught/Outsider Art. It is easy to navigate and also contains information about us, our past publications, newsletters, videos and articles written by and about Just Folk. We encourage you to go on our site and contact us at [email protected]for any inquiries you might have. All of our current inventory now resides at a fabulous art shipping and storage facility in downtown Los Angeles. We have a small office there and access to all of the art and the ability to bring potential buyers to view any pieces they are interested in purchasing. Everything is climate-controlled, insured and secure. We also have the ability to ship directly from the warehouse, a great convenience for both buyer and seller! All our inventory now resides at a fabulous art shipping and storage facility in downtown Los Angeles. We have a small office there and access to all of the art and the ability to bring potential buyers to view any pieces they are interested in purchasing. Everything is climate-controlled, insured and secure. We ship directly from the warehouse, a great convenience for both buyer and seller! We will continue to show selected inventory at art fairs, which we will announce as they happen in future blasts to you. Our pieces will continue to be featured in museum shows and exhibitions. We currently have a piece at the Known/Unknown: Private Obsession and Hidden Desire in Outsider Art exhibit curated by Frank Maresca at the Museum of Sex in New York City. We also lent an extraordinary Noah’s Ark tramp art piece to an exhibit, No Idle Hands: The Myths and Meanings of Tramp Art to Santa Fe’s Museum of International Folk Art. Also, two of our amazing William Hawkins pieces are traveling in an exhibition, An Imaginative Geography, to the Columbus Museum of Art, Figge Art Museum, the Mingei Museum and the Columbus Museum. Past loans have included Felipe Archuleta carvings to the Kohler Museum, Jim Bloom to the American Visionary Art Museum, Elijah Pierce to Keny Gallery and pieces to the Westmount Ridley-Tree Galley. We look forward to Leslie Umberger’s upcoming exhibit, Between Worlds: The Art Of Bill Traylor at the Smithsonian American Institution in Washington in 2018. It promises to be spectacular. Don’t forget we have our Bill Traylor Postcard book and “Unfiltered” as well as the wonderful graphic poster we produced. Check these out on Amazon and our website as well. Not to mention our own collection of Bill Traylor masterpieces for sale! Just Folk has left the building but we are alive and well online, Facebook, Instagram, and Incollect!

Change is always challenging, but we are making great progress in our adaptation to an online gallery. We have winnowed down our inventory, as many of you who follow us can see, and what remains are the iconic traditional Americana pieces that have been featured in the “bibles” of great folk art, American Vernacular and American Primitive, as well as in museums and important collections we have bought. They are the pieces that tell the story of America, and have become a part of our history and culture. Our dual focus is on Outsider and Self-Taught Art, which we believe to be gaining recognition within the mainstream art world (making it Insider Art, or as it should be regarded, just Art!) The artists we feature are the ones we have fallen in love with. We do not represent artists; we buy pieces that move us and share their insights into inside and outside worlds. Our main criteria for acquiring work is enthusiasm for the piece. We believe you should buy what you love.

We are in the process of changing our format for the online gallery, so expect new surprises and a lot of new material in the coming months. We will be updating the blog more often, and increasing our presence on Facebook and Instagram as well. It’s a new world for us!

In the meantime, we participated in The Outsider Art Fair in New York in January and found a receptive crowd. Our booth was all black and white work, and we called it Absence of Color. It was a different approach to curating work of various self-taught artists, and it got a lot of attention. A few pictures are included here.

Just came back from England where folk art abounds! There is a wonderful show of British Folk Art at the Tate Gallery which is small but quite comprehensive, although they don’t have as many trade signs, weathervanes and whirlygigs as I would have liked. There is a growing awareness throughout the UK that they have some folk treasures. Dealer Robert Young has an incredible eye, and he and his wife Josyane took a booth at Masterpiece London which contained some terrific pieces. I just had to purchase a few for Just Folk, which we will be bringing to the Metro Show in January! Although Just Folk started our collection with Americana and American Folk Art, we have added a few pieces from England and France which look like they belong and correspond to our sensibilities! Two wonderful collage pieces from the 19th Century, an old game board similar to darts, and a huge wooden scissors trade sign came home with me to Summerland! There is also a big interest in Outsider Art and Self-Taught Art in Europe. The new Raw Vision Magazine has a feature on Bill Traylor who is near and dear to us, as you know. The whole international scene seems to be embracing raw art, art brut, primitive art, visionary art. There is a wonderful exhibit at Los Angeles Country Museum of Art with the works of Sam Doyle. It takes some patience to locate it at the museum, but is very worth seeing. So many of the works we feature at Just Folk are done by African American Artists like Doyle (William Hawkins,Jesse Aaron, Thornton Dial, Purvis Young and Ronald Lockett among them.) The freshness, spontaneity, and artistry are amazing. So glad many others are becoming aware of this 20th century artwork.

This is the first entry on our new and updated website blog! Welcome to news of Just Folk! We just returned from our annual visit to New York’s Outsider Art Fair, which was moved from freezing January to balmy May this year for the first time. There were several advantages to the move: obviously, the weather was better! The Fair this year coincided with Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island, which draws a lot of art lovers to New York. Unfortunately, quite a few other Fairs had the same idea and the city was host to about 8 major art events the weekend of OAF and Frieze! This meant that foot traffic was light and speedy because people were anxious to see it all! It was also the first nice weekend in New York in months, and many people chose to go away and take advantage of the weather. It was also Mother’s Day on Sunday! But the OAF was beautifully-staged at Center 548 in Chelsea, and we were proud to exhibit the best of our most established self-taught artists, including Bill Traylor, William Hawkins, Ronald Lockett, Martin Ramirez, and Sam Doyle. We were sad not to include some contemporary works of Jim Bloom, but were instructed that they didn’t fit the profile of the show. Check them out here on the website. He’s a very talented, insightful artist who deserves exposure. The OAF was very inclusive in the international artists it showcased, and the world of Art Brut and Self-Taught Art is very exciting. The Fair, along with the opening of The American Folk Art’s new exhibit, “Self-Taught Genius,” is highlighting the importance of Outsider Art and its inclusion in the contemporary art world. The museum’s show will travel to eight other cities throughout the country. Hope you get a chance to see it! Here’s a shot of our booth at OAF!